Piaget - Stages 1 and 2

Jean Piaget’s
Theory of
Cognitive
Development
Stages 1 and 2
Stage 1:
The
Sensorimotor
Stage
The Sensorimotor Stage
Birth-2 years
During this stage, infants learn and develop
through their sensory experiences (such as
hearing and seeing) and their motor
actions (such as sucking and grasping).
sensory
motor
The crucial achievement of this
stage is the child’s developing
understanding that…
Teddybear clipart from sweetclipart.com
…an object still exists, even if it can
no longer be touched, seen or
heard.
Teddybear clipart from sweetclipart.com
The development of object
permanence shows that the
baby is beginning to create
mental representations of
the external world.
Teddybear clipart from sweetclipart.com
In other words, the baby is
developing the ability to use mental
symbols to represent the world.
Teddy clipart from sweetclipart.com
That’s a form of thinking.
That’s also a form of memory.
Teddy clipart from sweetclipart.com
In the last six months of the
sensorimotor stage, the baby begins
to develop symbolic thought,
especially language.
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mental
imagery
language
The other major achievement is
goal-directed behaviour: being able to
carry out a sequence of motor movements
directed towards achieving something.
Clipart of teddy and armchair from sweetclipart.com
Stage 2:
The
Preoperational
Stage
The Preoperational Stage
2-7 years
Children develop their
abilities to think
symbolically as they:
•increase their
language skills
dramatically
•engage in pretend
play, taking on
imaginary roles and
using play objects or
props to represent reallife objects
Children learn to use symbols such as
words or mental images in order to solve
simple problems and to think about
things they are not experiencing here and
now, becoming…
doctors, teachers, firefighters or superheroes…
Flaws in Preoperational Thinking
?
The video on the next slide will give
you an insight into the kind of
logical flaws a child in this stage
may display. This video provides
examples of
•a child’s difficulty in conserving
•a child’s tendency to centrate
•irreversible thinking
Conservation
Watch this video on YouTube
A
B
C
Conservation
of Volume
Task
“Conservation is the ability to understand that
redistributing material does not affect its mass,
number, volume or length.”
Definition: Saul Macleod from Simply Psychology
A child has difficulty in conserving because
of two other cognitive shortcomings that
make this kind of judgement difficult:
centration and irreversibility.
Centration is the tendency to focus on
one aspect of a task whilst ignoring or
overlooking other, equally important
aspects.
For instance, in the conservation of
volume task, the child might “centre”
or concentrate on the height of the water
in the beaker yet overlook its width.
Irreversibility is the inability to mentally
rewind a process. The child cannot visualise
what would happen, for instance, if the liquid
were poured back into the original beaker.
Words for describing
Piaget’s Theory
object permanence centration
goal-directed behaviour
sensorimotor
symbolic thought
conservation
cognitive
irreversibility preoperational
Words for describing
Piaget’s Theory
object permanence
centration cognitive
goal-directed behaviour symbolic thought
preoperational sensorimotor
irreversibility conservation
a Two of Piaget’s stages are…
b Language is a prime example of …
c Two achievements of the first stage are…
d The inability to rewind a mental process is
called…
Words for describing
Piaget’s Theory
object permanence
centration cognitive
goal-directed behaviour symbolic thought
preoperational sensorimotor
irreversibility conservation
e Knowing that something still exists even if
it’s not present is called…
f An infant combines movements and input from
the senses in order to learn in the____ stage.
g Another word for thinking or mental
abilities is ________ functions.
Words for describing
Piaget’s Theory
object permanence
centration cognitive
goal-directed behaviour symbolic thought
preoperational sensorimotor
irreversibility conservation
h In this stage, children’s symbolic thinking is
increasingly impressive, but there are still
significant flaws in their cognitive abilities.
i Focusing on one element of a task or
problem to the exclusion of other elements
Words for describing
Piaget’s Theory
object permanence
centration cognitive
goal-directed behaviour symbolic thought
preoperational sensorimotor
irreversibility conservation
j Knowing that a line of coins
does not increase in number
just because someone spreads
the coins out requires an
understanding of…
Picture Quiz
a Not being able to
do this mentally
c They can imagine
being someone else.
b He can plan a sequence
of movements.
d The baby knows it exists,
even though it can’t be seen.
Picture Quiz
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e A baby can
visualise a parent
and use words to
represent ideas.
f The stage in
which a baby learns
through integrating
sensory input and
physical actions
Egocentrism
Egocentrism is the inability to take another
person’s perspective or point of view, …
…either physically
or psychologically.
Physically…
A child in the preoperational stage finds it
difficult or impossible to visualise a scene
from another’s viewpoint…
Psychologically…
…or imagine the wishes, needs or thoughts
of another person.
I know where
Mum put the biscuits
so
my
brother
must
Mum would
know
too.
like a train set for
her birthday.
Pic credit: http://cliparts.co/
My daddy is
upset. I’m going to
give him my
teddy.
A Brief Evaluative Comment on Egocentrism
Keep in mind that many researchers have questioned Piaget’s
ideas about egocentrism. Modern studies of “theory of mind”,
for instance, indicate that most children acquire this concept
between the ages of 3 and 6. This suggests, as many critics of
Piaget have pointed out, that he may have underestimated
younger children’s ability in this area.
•The video snippet you are about to watch explores the
concept of “theory of mind”.
•“Theory of mind” focuses on the psychological skill of
being able to understand that other people think, know and
perceive differently from oneself.
•This concept is therefore not entirely synonymous with
Piaget’s concept of egocentrism, which refers also to taking
another’s physical and spatial viewpoint.
The children watch as the experimenter replaces coins in a
piggybank with marbles. The experimenter then asks, “What
would someone else think was in the piggybank?”
Younger children tend to reply:“Marbles!”
___________.
Older children (sometimes as young as 4) reply:
__________.
“Money!”
Watch this video on Youtube at this link (10 seconds to 4 minutes)
Very Brief Evaluation
of the First Two Stages
•Hundreds of studies have been carried out on
aspects of Piaget’s theory.
•Many have indicated that children in the first
two stages tend to achieve many cognitive
milestones earlier than Piaget believed.
•Despite these queries, the concepts in Piaget’s
theory have shaped educational philosophy for
decades and continue to be applied in many
educational settings.